VERMIN wrote:What is the format/course layouts for the different divisions? Black, Blues, etc.?

Open divisions will play Black tees both rounds.

I'm still arguing with myself about the other divisions. On the one hand, I'd rather have two layouts to deal with than three. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much sense it makes to lump all the ams from MA1 down to FJ3 together and have them play the same layout. So, since I can ignore a certain amount of kvetching without much damage to my psyche, and no matter what I do someone will get pissed, my inclination is to have all Open divisions, and the Advanced divisions (including the age-protected advanced divs), play Black both rounds, and the rest of the field (any women's divisions other than Open as well as Int/Rec/Juniors) play Blue/Red. That should allow us to have enough propagators playing each layout to ensure the ratings are calculated correctly, keep me from having to deal with uploading results of three or more different layouts to the PDGA, since this will be my first time dealing with all of that, and keep things from being too frustrating for the Rec players and any Women/Juniors who sign up. I'm open to valid, reasonable arguments about different approaches so long as they accomplish all or most of those things, and make good sense. Not really interested in whining about wanting to play a lower division but wanting to play on the concrete pads, etc. Honestly, if I thought that we could avoid flow/speed of play issues, I wouldn't really have any problem with the lower divisions playing Black both rounds also -- the people you're trying to beat are playing the same layout you are. But I'd be concerned that doing so would drive away as many players as it would attract, and that we'd potentially have some nasty backups. Anyway, there are no women signed up yet and all of the juniors I know of will be playing Rec.

The main thing that would convince me to do otherwise would be a groundswell of opinion from Women/Juniors in favor of a different, but still reasonable, approach. Anything that'll get more of them registered is something I'll seriously consider.

Do whatever you think is appropriate. Like you said, no matter which pads you play from, you are trying to score better than your opponents from the same pads. First one that whines can be the td next year!

BTW, I will probably try to do some course cleanup/maintenance on Sunday morning. Would love any and all help -- send me a PM here or an e-mail to info@roswelldiscgolf.org if you can help. I'll post on Saturday what time I expect to be there.

I'll be out doing course cleanup tomorrow morning -- probably will start at the course around 9 or 9:30, as I need to run to Home Depot to pick up a few things first. If you come out and don't see me, try e-mailing the info@roswelldiscgolf.org address -- I'll have my phone with me and will be able to get e-mails.

Also, if you've tried to register online and had it try to charge you twice for the $10 PDGA non-member fee, feel free to try it again -- I think I just fixed that.

Thanks to Bryan Gort for putting 10-meter strings on each of the baskets today. Hope that will help with questions about when you can jump putt and with measuring CTPs on Saturday and keep things moving along. Please don't remove or shorten the strings between now and Saturday. I'll check over them again on Friday and replace any that need it, but I'd rather not have to spend time on that.

DiscStalker full color print trophy discs in the works. Planning to do trophy discs for each division with 3 or more players. Right now, that would be Open, Pro Masters, Advanced Masters, and Rec -- Intermediate has two pre-regs so I'd probably do one for that as well on the assumption that at least one more will sign up. If there are not enough pre-regs for me to do a trophy disc ahead of time, but we end up with additional divisions of at least 3 from on-site registrations, I'll get discs made for those divisions and deliver/ship afterward. So if you want to make sure there's a trophy disc waiting for you and you're thinking of playing one of the divisions not mentioned above, get your entry in before noon on Wednesday.

I'm going to arbitrarily change the schedule slightly. If you plan to sign up on site, please arrange to be at ERP to do so before 8:45 am. That will give us a half hour before the player's meeting at 9:15 to get cards arranged, etc. If you've pre-registered, you'll still have until 9 am to sign in. If we get enough walk-up registrations to fill before 8:45, we'll start a wait list and open it up at 9 am. First round start will still be 9:45.

And we're only two Open players shy of having as many as at the last LITW, in 2010. Rec and the age-protected divisions are running about where I'd expect them to be. But Advanced is awfully quiet, guys -- only three registered so far. Get yourselves on in here -- it's only $30 (or $40 if you're not PDGA-current).

HEY I JuST SIGNED UP FOR the intermediate division but I can't bring myself to through from the red tees... so could I possibly move up to the advanced division please let me know or I'll talk to you Saturday. Thanks Sarom Nuon

romega101 wrote:HEY I JuST SIGNED UP FOR the intermediate division but I can't bring myself to through from the red tees... so could I possibly move up to the advanced division please let me know or I'll talk to you Saturday. Thanks Sarom Nuon

romega101 wrote:HEY I JuST SIGNED UP FOR the intermediate division but I can't bring myself to through from the red tees... so could I possibly move up to the advanced division please let me know or I'll talk to you Saturday. Thanks Sarom Nuon

Sure. Same entry fee, so just remind me at check-in to make sure you're in the right division.

Since a couple of folks have asked: player's pack will be minimal, and Ams only. Choice of one of the course fundraiser discs from the RDGC: Champion Glow Leopard, Champion Glow Wraith, or Blizzard Boss (weights between 130-140 and between 150-160 for the Blizz, 160+ for the Glow discs). And an RDGC mini, for as long as they last (and if you really must have one after they run out, I'll buy some extra minis from Bob and throw it in). Since I didn't have time to drum up a lot of merch or added cash sponsorships, I wanted to keep as much as possible of the money going to payout. For Pros, that means no player's pack.

If anyone wants to throw in additional merch items as part of the player's pack, I welcome any and all donations, and will provide you with documentation of the donation if desired.

I will have a very limited number of additional custom-print discs with the tourney graphic on them available for purchase for $25, with the net proceeds going into payout.

Did I mention that the trophy discs will be GOLD? Well, gold plastic anyway.

Lots of last-minute out of town interest -- have had calls from groups of players in Birmingham, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Savannah in the last 24 hours. We may come close to filling up. So if there's any way you can register online today, please do so. If you're showing on the player's list on DG U or the PDGA site, I've got you in. If you're on the list and know you're not coming, let me know (Brad Traylor and Justin Dickerson I know about already). Don't want anyone to get shut out.

When we sign in tomorrow morning is there a chance to move to a different divison?

Sure, particularly if you're staying in an Am division so that the entry fee is the same. But if you're pretty sure you want to change, let me know today or tonight -- once online registration closes tonight I'll probably try to get the ScorePointe cards together and at least think about how I'm going to set up the cards, so the more I get right before then the better. It won't be a problem if you want to wait until tomorrow, but knowing today would just mean one less thing to deal with in the morning.

Thanks to Ryan Watson, Mike Azimi, Jeff Pruett, Tim Acker for helping with course prep today. Got most of the tee pads in workable shape and repainted the timbers at the front of each, painted the out of bounds lines, and did a little clearing of saplings/weeds/brush in a couple of places.

I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but when tokio shoots a round that's 3 strokes better then his first round and it's rated the same there's something that's not quite right. Maybe it's because my PDGA number is wrong. Great Job today by the way Scott.

Dollar wins Open at LITW for the third time with a very hot 49/53/102, with Tokio not far off the pace at 54/51/105 and Mat Crider from Chattanooga third at 55/53/108. Bootsie, Chim Chim, and Cody B. tied for fourth one back of Crider at 109.

Pro Masters and Advanced each were tight at the top, with the entire lead card in Pro Masters in the hunt until the final hole -- Tim Keith took it with a 56/56/112 one stroke ahead of Porter and Mel Shuman who swapped 56s and 57s to end up tied at 113. Brian Benton was the victim of an unfortunate civilian incursion on his final drive, leading to a 58 to go with his first round 56, ending at 114, with Plotky right behind, recovering from a first round 60 with the hot round of the day in MPM at 55 for a 115 total.

Greg Pothier earned a few "bagger" comments from the peanut gallery with a 55/58/113, taking Advanced by 3. The next four spots had only two shots separating them, with Mark Spaugh at 116, Mike Azimi at 117, and Coby Guice and Dustin Horner at 118.

Craig Dickerson took Advanced Masters with a consistent 59/58/117, winning in a walk by 9 over Vern Williams at 126. Al Fetta finished 3 back of Vern at 129.

Speedy had a relatively easy time of it in Advanced Grandmasters, matching Craig D's score from Adv Masters at 117, finishing ahead of Richard Lindsey at 124 and Mark Kromis at 128.

Brian Lang won a one-hole playoff over youngster Samuel Wood to lead the relatively small Intermediate field. Both shot 114 in regulation, finishing one ahead of Dylan Holt at 115.

Alan Posey made his trip down from Tennessee worthwhile by edging out Tim Petrea by one shot for the win in Rec, 111 to 112 (both of which would have been good enough to win in Intermediate, from the same layout). Arkady Medovoy finished third at 117, with Tim Bell and Gerry Hill tied at 119 for fourth.

Chris Foley took the Ace Fund throwoff on Hole 2. Don't have all the CTPs in front of me -- will try to post those later.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out and especially all the players who got us to a full field (+1) in my first sanctioned event as TD. Thanks to Mike Azimi, Ryan Watson, Jeff Pruett, Tim Acker, and Bryan Gort for helping with getting the course tournament-ready. Thank you to Ari Walker for the tournament graphic design, and to Disc Stalker and particularly Nathan Skinner for production of the trophy discs and custom-printed sponsor discs. Thanks to Andrew Lofstrand for design/layout on the scorecards and ScorePointe cards. Could not have done it without the invaluable help of Bob Pressley from Disc Caddie, both for handling the Am payout once again, and for handling with equanimity my second and third serious screw-ups this year in calculating that payout, reworking the payout twice without complaining once -- the second time under a major time crunch as we tried to get everyone on the road home before dark. As always, thanks to Brett Porter, Imran Khan, Andrew Lofstrand, Brian Lang, Arkady Medovoy, and probably a few others I'm forgetting as it closes in on midnight, for their help with checking, tallying, and posting the scores. Thanks also to Imran, Nathan Skinner, and my wife Dove for help with check-in/registration. Dove and my kids also get a big thanks for helping out with printing and cutting scorecards, assembling signs, organizing all the odds and ends needed to run an event like this, and especially for making sure we had enough cash on hand in the right denominations to get everyone their payout and CTPs with minimal hassle. And for being understanding about the time spent on this the last several weeks.

Appreciate everyone's patience and good will as we worked through the minor problems that did come up today. Hope everyone had fun. And it's not to early for someone to volunteer to TD LITW 2013 so I can get back to doing what I do best at this event (i.e., tanking in the second round).

Bootsie wrote:I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but when tokio shoots a round that's 3 strokes better then his first round and it's rated the same there's something that's not quite right. Maybe it's because my PDGA number is wrong. Great Job today by the way Scott.

Patience, patience. The first upload didn't have the layout information set correctly. This look better to you?:

Mark Kromis made me aware today of a scoring error that should have resulted in Rick Greer, not Mark, finishing in 3rd place in Advanced Grandmasters. My apologies -- the mistake occurred when I transferred Mark's score from the round card to the ScorePointe card. So, I'll be working out something with Rick to compensate him for the 3rd place payout that should have gone to him. I've already corrected the score on the PDGA site.

Lofstrand wrote:Great job Scott. Everyone had a great time, and the numbers that play in this event year to year are testament to the challenge of the course and the work you do.

Thanks, but I think the credit mostly has to go to the course and the players -- I took a look back at previous years, back to the first Lost in the Woods in 2005, and there've never been fewer than 68 players. The second one, in 2006, had 85(!). I know from helping out with the 2010 event that it filled but had a few no-shows. It has had four different tournament directors (and handful of assistant TDs, including you) over the years, moved around between March and August before settling into the early October schedule, and even disappeared completely for a year last year. And yet it came back strong this year, despite my not doing that much to build up sponsorships, etc. With all due respect to Mark Holder, Imran Khan, you, and Jason Bradshaw, who've all done a great job in the past as director, I've come to believe that the main thing this event needs from a TD is not to screw things up -- otherwise, it's going to be a reasonable success no matter who's running it. We had out-of-towners coming from every direction in the last couple of days, and I don't think it was because of anything I did to promote it. Several of the out-of-towners told me Saturday how much they enjoy the course, despite the complaints from others about too many trees and rock/dirt tees on the Blues and Reds.

So once again, thanks to everyone who helped, and especially all the players who keep coming back every year.

Looking back at the history on LITW, I discovered that I shorted Dollar a win -- he's won Open 3 times, but he also won Advanced at LITW in the first one back in 2005. So that's four first-place finishes in the seven years the event has been held. If he ever grows to like the course, he might never lose here.

romega101 wrote:Hey Scott..where can I check out the photos from the tourney. I had a blast btw. Thanks to all that helped put it on. Can't wait for the next one.

Mine didn't turn out very well -- distracted photographer. Bill Thornton shot quite a few, and the ones I saw looked great -- when he gets them posted I'll put a note here about where to check them out. Thanks very much for playing!